


Classroom Lessons

by Thisisentertaining



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aang in fire school, Angst, Book 3: Fire, Canonical Child Abuse, Gen, The gaang finds out about the scar, Zuko's Scar (Avatar)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:13:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24584359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thisisentertaining/pseuds/Thisisentertaining
Summary: Sokka never would have thought he'd be pretending to be a Fire Nation Colonial Citizen, going to a parent conference about his fake!son who was an airbender, but here he was.At least life wasn't boring.Sokka turned on Aang, fake mustache and beard bristling. "Young man, as soon as we get home, you're gonna get the punishment of a lifetime."The headmaster smirked, smugly, evil-y, Fire Nation-y. "That's what I like to hear. Really Zuko him."
Comments: 46
Kudos: 2021
Collections: Quality Fics, avatar tingz





	Classroom Lessons

**Author's Note:**

> The one in which Zuko's name becomes slang. For something he definitely wouldn't want to be synonymous with. 
> 
> So, I'm new to the fandom now that ATLA is on Netflix, but I know there are a lot of 'the gaang find out about the scar' docs, but this is my take on it because I got the first scene stuck in my head and it wouldn't go away.  
> I hope my concept isn't too overdone.
> 
> Hope you enjoy.

The boring flame-prinicpal was looking back at his papers again and Sokka took the moment to twitch his lips back and forth just to feel how the edges of the mustache felt when they brushed across his cheeks. He doubted fake-pregnant Katara (that is, Sapphire Fire) felt the same, but he was almost considering just… keeping the mustache. He looked good, he knew he made it work. 

No matter what Toph said, what did she know?

She couldn't even actually _see_ how good it looked on him. 'you sound like you couldn't pull of a mustache', sure. He wasn't buying it. 

The principal continued to blabber on and on about Aang being in trouble, bla bla, forewarned, bla bla, something about coal mines. Ah, 'are we clear', that must mean he's done.

"Don't you worry Mr. Headmaster," Wang Fire (Sokka) said, leaning forward and looking very adult if he did say so himself. "I'll straighten this boy out something fierce." 

He turned to Aang and started telling, all in the name of showmanship. (Also sometimes yelling was just fun. Especially when he didn't actually have to worry about making Aang upset and causing the sad seal-puppy eyes) "Young man, as soon as we get home, you're gonna get the punishment of a lifetime." 

The headmaster smirked, smugly, evil-y, Fire Nation-y. "That's what I like to hear. Really Zuko him." 

That… that was not something Sokka had expected to hear. Aang and Katara seemed surprised as well. "Zuko?" Aang asked, "Like Prince Zuko?" 

The headmaster seemed confused by their confusion, which got Sokka more confused. "Oh do they not say that in the colonies? It's just a phrase, slang I suppose, for a… particularly harsh punishment for your child. You know, because of the whole…" he made a gesture at the left side of his face. 

Sokka was liking this conversation less and less. He, Katara, and Aang shared a glance. Apparently he was with the majority on that one. They were going to keep prying though, because of course they were. 

"Those scars were a punishment?" Katara asked. "I thought they were from a training accident or something."

The headmaster seemed surprised again and Sokka cast her a look, clearly trying to convey 'Katara, stop asking stuff that Sapphire Fire should know'. She wasn't looking at him, so it wasn't especially effective. 

Oh well, he tried. 

"You must not be from a military colony. I suppose it makes sense that some of the more… remote villages may not know. After all, the story was a bit more hush hush before the return. Everyone _knew_ about it, of course. It just wasn't spoken of… achem, so yes, anyway. Have you met the Prince? You've really seen the scar yourselves?" 

"Oh uh," Sokka scrambled for a half-decent answer. "He came to our colony once a few months ago. Hunting… the Avatar?" 

"Ah, I suppose that makes sense. I heard that the hunt sent him to several strange locations. Anyway, I have other meetings to attend to. I will leave Kuzon's punishment to you. Though I do feel the need to let you know, 'going Zuko' on a child does not mean literally burning and disfiguring them, only the Fire Lord can get away with that. Just make sure he learns his lesson and doesn't cause any more trouble." 

And then, as if the man hadn't just said pretty much _the worst thing ever_ he just… shooed them out. 

Sokka followed Aang and Katara and numb legs, though none of them said anything until they were in a private area of a cafe, sipping on cold drinks. 

"So…" he broke the ice. (it was funny cause Katara was the waterbender. She _made_ ice and-) "Please tell me that I somehow completely misunderstood that conversation." 

"No." Aang said softly, and it wasn't fair for him to have the seal-puppy sad eyes _now_."I don't think you did."

"We need to find out more about what happened." Katara said determinedly. Yes, Sokka was on board with this plan. Look at this, for once they were on the same page and-

"I-I don't know guys." The airbender said and Sokka should have known. They were never all three on the same page at the same time. "It doesn't feel right to pry into someone's personal life. Besides, he isn't even hunting us anymore since he thinks I'm dead." 

"From the sounds of it, it's not exactly 'private'." Sokka countered. "If it's supposed to be common knowledge then we need to know it for when it comes up in conversation. Soooooo, this is for like, official disguise reasons. Totally necessary." 

"Exactly!" Katara agreed, and she had been weird about Zuko ever since the whole 'his crazy sister pretty much killing Aang' thing, so Sokka was really glad she was on his side with all of this. "Aang, Zuko spent literal years trying to learn everything he could about _you_ , I think it's worth it to try learning something about him." 

"Ooh, ooh, plus," Sooka said proudly as he thought of another point. "Its the Fire Lord. We need to learn everything we can about the Fire Lord. It's tactical." 

Aang still looked uncomfortable, but with both Sokka and Katara ganging up on him, he reluctantly agreed. 

Water Tribe for the win.

* * *

It was not a win, it was a loss, a loss all around. Even as they set up for Aang's super secret (maybe illegal? Who made dancing illegal, clearly the horribleness of the Fire Nation knew no bounds) dance party, everyone was muted, dull. They had filled Toph in on the story before finding answers, and the four of them together had gone to the dramatic reading of the 'Ballad of the Banished Prince, Avatar Slayer, and Savior of the Fire Nation'. They hadn't stayed for the full thing. They had lived through most of it, they didn't need to hear the Fire Nation's side of the story. 

Sokka didn't care about what the Fire Nation thought. He shouldn't care about the first part either, shouldn't feel sorry for the guy that attacked his village, kidnapped Aang from the North Pole, hunted them like wounded sheep-walruses, and- and just did a lot of really sucky stuff. 

He shouldn't care, he really shouldn't, but… 

He could see it in his mind's eye, and yet he couldn't. He could see Zuko, with all of his yelling of honor and bluster, refusing to fight his father. He couldn't see how any father could… 

He could hear a young Zuko's voice, protesting, begging, claiming that he was a 'loyal son'. He couldn't imagine Zuko screaming in pain as no one moved to help lest they face the wrath of the Fire Lord, the sufferer's father. 

The father that banished his son, abandoned him, and sent him on what everyone would believe was a fool's errand. 

So much about Zuko finally made _sense_. The desperation, the determination, everything. 

The kindly Uncle who never seemed to actually care about capturing the Avatar but would always stand around offering tea and speaking in proverbs still didn't make much sense, but everything else did. 

Zuko made sense, and he didn't like it. From the look on Katara's face, she didn't either. Toph hadn't experienced the worst of the "Zuko Era", so she didn't have as much of a personal stake, but even so her Earthbending was being extra… crash-y today. And considering how crash-y she always us, for him to notice a difference was saying something. 

Aang had gotten that 'determined' look on his face, the one that made Sokka a little nervous for what would happen when they did hit the Fire Nation capital. He was already trying to figure out how to add 'confrontation with Zuko/turning the angry kid to the not-evil side' to his already packed master schedule. It's fine. He just had to finagle a bit.

**Author's Note:**

> EDIT: sorry if you saw this before or got a notification, I just edited some typos.


End file.
